NORWICH – Crammed into overstuffed vaults, piled in garages with leaking roofs and completely unorganized are just some of the terms officials are using to describe how the county’s records are stored.
“We have a real piecemeal way of dealing with records management,” Chenango County Clerk Mary Weidman told lawmakers this week.
At the request of Safety & Rules Committee Vice Chairperson Janice O’Shea, R-Coventry, Weidman will embark upon an inventory assessment of each department’s records in order to determine if they would be better accumulated and kept stored in the cells at the old, former jail.
“It (the jail) would be economical, close and accessible,” she said. As part of her assessment, Weidman said she would also train department managers about developing a plan for both purging and maintaining the “overwhelming” amount of paperwork generated.
“But any plan we come up with has to be re-evaluated by department heads on a yearly basis and must backed up by the board,” she said. Weidman estimated the process would take up to three years to complete.
“If we are going to get serious about this, we are going to have to have a plan that every department head has to have a designated task force to work on this,” Linda E. Natoli, R-Norwich, said.
“I’m all for going forward with this from now on,” Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston, said. “I don’t know that it’s necessary to go back through everything. ... Teach these people what they can throw away now.”
Weidman said a lack of manpower and the huge backlog of files are reasons department heads cite for not keeping county records up.